Speaking at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 12 February 2018, entitled “The First FAO/WHO/AU International Food Safety Conference”, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo highlighted that food safety “is a central element of public health”. He noted that the WTO’s rules, such as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement and the Trade Facilitation Agreement, play a key role in ensuring food is traded safely and called on the international community to harness new technologies and information tools to support food safety and the achievement of the SDGs.

If there’s one item that epitomizes our modern world, it’s plastic. It’s easy to make and use but does untold damage, especially in Asia where rivers, lakes and oceans are literally choking on it.

We are only now learning how pollution impacts the base of our food web and the oxygen-producing plankton (phytoplankton) in our oceans.  Phytoplankton use dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) in our oceans to produce around 70% of our oxygen.  They singlehandedly remove a third of atmospheric CO2 in this way.